Have you ever found yourself walking in time to the beat of a song? It’s not just something that only dancers or drummers can do, but rather something that all of our brains fundamentally allow us to do, often without us even noticing. That spontaneous alignment, when our bodies instinctively fall into rhythm with sound, is called auditory-motor entrainment.
But here’s the real question: How early in life does this ability emerge, and how refined is it in young children who are still learning to control their bodies?
At UTSC, under the supervision of Mark Schmuckler in the Department of Psychology, I worked as a PhD student with the help of four undergraduate students: Ninthujah Suthaharan studying human biology and mental health, Mikayla Lafrate studying neuroscience and psychology, Kaynaat Abrar studying population health and psychology, and Shabiga Ragunathan studying human biology and population health.
They helped me recruit participants and collect data as I set out to explore just how early this ability emerges. We investigated whether children aged three to five years — some of whom are still developing basic coordination — instinctively adjust their walking pace in response to changes in the tempo of a metronome, and what that entrainment might reveal about how rhythm influences motor development early in life.
The beat beneath our feet
Auditory-motor entrainment shows up in all kinds of ways: from toddlers bouncing to music and runners syncing their strides with a playlist, to patients recovering from injury where rhythmic cues have been shown to support motor coordination and aid in regaining functional movement. It’s our brain’s way of linking what we hear with how we move.
Researchers have long known that adults can synchronize their movements to rhythmic sounds. A 2023 study conducted by UTSC researchers Schmuckler and Angelina Paolozza, and published by the American Psychological Association discovered that infants as young as 14 months are capable of increasing their walking pace in response to a metronome tempo set faster than their usual cadence.
However, this particular study focused on just one tempo manipulation, while ours was interested in seeing what happens when we take all forms of instruction away, and present individuals with more subtle changes in tempo.
We used a pressure-sensitive walkway that records detailed information about each footfall as individuals cross it. Then, we had children aged three to five walk across the walkway while metronome clicks were played at slightly faster and slower tempos than the children’s usual walking pace. These tempos were played in random order, not just from slow to fast.
We found that young children can adjust their walking in response to a range of subtle tempo changes, not just a single beat shift. More importantly — unlike in studies with adults, which frequently rely on participants receiving verbal instructions to match their steps to the beats they hear — they did this without any verbal instructions. Even in studies withholding instructions from adults, participants may be more likely to realize the concept of the experiments because of their simplicity. Comparatively, children are less likely to do so, highlighting that they don’t need to be taught to walk in time with the beat.
Although evidence of auditory-motor entrainment was seen across all of the ages included in the study, the three- and four-year-olds were less consistent in how they responded to the tempo changes, as they seemed to have a harder time slowing down than speeding up. This alludes to potential limits to how much motor adaptation can effectively happen in response to sound, and suggests that slowing the body down may simply require more control and effort than speeding it up. This is because slowing down means braking against the body’s natural rhythm — a skill that young children may still be developing.
By contrast, the five-year-olds’ step adjustments looked a lot like adult patterns, with smoother, more consistent steps that were a better fit to the subtle changes in tempos.
This study also examined whether prior experience with music or dance made a difference in one’s ability to match their footfalls to the varying changes in auditory information. Previous research has linked such training to sharper timing and coordination because it involves practicing movements in sync with external rhythms.
In our study, children with previous experiences like ballet or piano lessons did not necessarily adjust their steps any better than those without such formal musical or dance training. This suggests that basic gait entrainment is a largely automatic process that relies more on general movement and perception systems than on specialized training.
The importance of rhythm
This‘inherent rhythm’ in humans is especially interesting because it extends beyond movement alone. The ability to synchronize with sound is also connected to language development, attention, and social bonding. Beyond that, understanding how rhythm and movement connect can help us better support motor development in children.
While rhythmic cues have long been used in adult rehabilitation settings to help regain motor function after impairment or injury, they have rarely been applied in pediatric settings. Findings from our research indicate that children as young as three years old spontaneously respond to subtle changes in rhythmic cues, suggesting that such approaches could be introduced much earlier, tapping into children’s natural sensitivity to rhythm to support development in a more intuitive and accessible way.
For instance, embedding rhythmic cues into everyday play, music, or movement activities could provide a child-friendly route to strengthen coordination, attention, and motor skills in the pediatric rehabilitation programs designed for movement disorders or recovery from injury.
The beat goes on
There is still a lot to explore. For instance, do children maintain their adjusted walking patterns once the beat stops? Do children with developmental delays show the same kind of automatic entrainment? And how would mild biomechanical challenges, like a weighted backpack, influence the ability to entrain? These kinds of questions take a step toward building a deeper understanding of how robust and flexible auditory-motor entrainment really is.
But for now, one thing is clear: even before they’re old enough to tie their shoes, children are already adjusting their steps in response to what they hear. What begins as a subtle connection between sound and movement opens the door to powerful possibilities for deepening our understanding of development, unlocking new insights into how what we hear shapes the ways in which we move, and guiding the next generation of movement-based therapies in pediatric care.
